Late Start Doesn't Hinder Playwright's Success

Date: 11/20/06
Contact: Marc Lebovitz

Playwright Margaret Iha, whose "Hopeless Spinning" has its world premiere at Illinois State University's Westhoff Theatre on Dec. 1, wrote her first play as a third-grade student in Texas. It did not meet with the same success as her stage direction that year of "Sleeping Beauty," so her budding playwriting career was put on hold.until her final year as a Politics and Government graduate student at Illinois State.

"Writing has always been my passion," she said. "I've always written poems and songs, as well as creative nonfiction pieces. I secretly still harbored a desire to write plays, though, and was so happy to learn that ISU offered a playwriting course. Near the end of completion of my degree requirements, I finally took the course."

In Leslie Sloan Orr's playwriting course in the School of Theatre, Iha wrote three 10-minute plays. She submitted one to the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival 10-minute play competition in 2005 and won second place. She entered a one-act play the next year which won first place.

Iha incorporated the subject matter of both pieces in "Hopeless Spinning," a play which revolves around an American journalism student and her desire to complete a photographic essay on the desperate street kids in Rio de Janeiro.

Iha, who has moved to Boulder, Colo., will return for the play's premiere on Dec. 1, joining a campus visit by internationally acclaimed social activist from Brazil, Yvonne Berezza de Mello. de Mello's "Children of Light" project for 13 years has helped educate and protect Rio's street children. Also attending opening night will be Stacey Evans, director of Students Helping Street Kids International. The 10-year-old non-profit group, which raises funds to help needy children in developing countries, was established by Oregon middle school counselor Bob Crites after he read an article about de Mello's work. Crites had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Brazil.

Hopeless Spinning" will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 1, 2 and 6 through 8, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 3, in Westhoff Theatre. Tickets are available at the Center for the Performing Arts box office from noon to 5 p.m. weekdays or by calling (309) 438-2535. Janet Wilson, assistant professor in the School of Theatre, is the director.

In "Hopeless Spinning," which is peppered with Portuguese and filled with compelling imagery, Iha combines contemporary poetry, rap and music with the centuries-old tradition of capoeira (an amalgamation of dance and martial arts).

Iha's passion for international human rights issues began early. She focused on that area as a journalism/communications baccalaureate student at Northern Illinois University. Later she attended law school for a year with international human rights law as her focus, but then shifted her attention to Illinois State University's Peace Corps program.

With young children and a family, though, serving in the Peace Corps was not a practical option, so Iha switched into ISU's Politics and Government graduate program, where she continued to pursue her interest in international human rights. Her original master's thesis was on trafficking of women for the sex trade, but when parts of that process stalled and her play was taking off, Iha decided to change her thesis topic to looking at the political influence of playwrights and their plays.

"I fell in love with playwriting and discovered that it was an arena where I could combine both my passions - international human rights issues and writing - in a very creative way," she said.

Cast members in "Hopeless Spinning" are Patrick Byrnes of Evergreen Park, Tamika Gibson of Chicago, Michael Gallant of Geneseo, Nathanial Haywood of Normal, C.J. Tuor of Peoria, Mallory Sims of Coralville, Iowa; Kristina Reyes of Oak Lawn, Grace Lethiot of Ottawa, Katrina Harjung of Elk Grove Village, Steve Brackett of Carbondale, Michael Bullaro of Barrington, Anthony Fiorelli of Wadsworth, Shannon Reilly of Western Springs, AJ Rahm of Glen Ellyn, Tony Ruffin of Chicago, Ashley Larabee of Mendota, Melanie Kibbler of Vernon Hills, Carthy Dixon of Chicago, Christopher Ciesla of Homewood, Ami Alvarez of Bloomington, Rocio Morales de Schmeiser of Guatamala City, Guatamala; and child actors Sara Coon of Normal and Glenn Elementary School, Shelbi Washington of Bloomington and Grove Elementary School, and Luke Hanold of Normal and Dani Creasy of Normal, both of Thomas Metcalf School.